This invention relates generally to modular conveyor belts hingedly linked by hinge pins and, more particularly, to removable attachments to those conveyor belts.
Conveyor belts are widely used in many industries to transport articles. In the food and beverage industries, modular plastic belts, or chains, are often used because of their cleanability and their ability to operate with little lubrication. The modular belts are generally constructed of a plurality of belt modules arranged side by side to form a belt row. The modules include hinge elements at each end. The hinge elements of consecutive rows are interleaved and interconnected by hinge rods to construct a conveyor belt of any desired length and width.
Usually, these belts form generally flat article-conveying surfaces. But some applications require accessories that deviate from a flat article-conveying surface. Sideguards, flights, rollers, holddown tabs, guides, and various inserts are examples of accessories added to belts to perform various functions. Some accessories are detachable from the belt and others are integrally molded with or permanently bonded to the belt. Examples of integral accessories include integrally molded flights and bonded high-friction elastomeric layers. In some cases, integral accessories give the belt a complex geometry that requires an expensive mold that is difficult to operate properly; in others, co-molding different materials requires special processes and careful process control.
One shortcoming associated with integral accessories is that the belt modules including them must be made in a separate mold and represented by a separate part number from standard belt modules without accessories with which they are interconnected to form a conveyor belt. Another shortcoming is that, once an integral accessory is damaged, the entire module must be replaced.
To solve these problems, detachable accessories have been used. But these usually require attachment to a specially designed base module with a specially designed receptacle for the accessory or to a standard base module that has been specially machined or otherwise modified to receive the accessory. Or the accessory must be attached to a special-purpose retainer, such as fastener hardware that could come loose and contaminate the conveyed product.
To overcome these shortcomings, there is a need for a conveyor belt that accepts accessory attachments of various configurations, including complicated topographies, without necessarily requiring special receptacle modules, additional fastening hardware, or special belt modifications.